


Pretend

by amargeet



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: And someone to talk to, Angst, Danny Needs a Hug, Experimentation, Hurt No Comfort, Parental Abuse, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 07:09:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12978753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amargeet/pseuds/amargeet
Summary: In which Danny, in ghost form, is caught by his parents.





	Pretend

His heart was in his throat and he couldn’t bring himself to breathe. This was all wrong. So, so wrong. His parents stood over his body, expressions hardened, but it wasn’t a situation in which he was being grounded which most would think that expression meant. It was much worse than that.

They were wearing their jumpsuits, as always, but the bright green ectoplasm covering those suits was new. Maybe it could have been assumed that one of the capsules with left over had burst and gotten over their clothes, but, unfortunately, that was not the case at all.

All that ectoplasm had come from his body. A body that his own parents were trying to study through dissection. A body that was currently in its ghost form so the normal red blood was instead turned into the following green ectoplasm that his parents were covered in. But, despite being in ghost form, he could still feel everything. And he was unable to pass out to forego the pain in fear of turning back into a human from the pain.

And despite what they were doing, as morally wrong as r was, he still cared and loved them and wouldn’t make them hate themselves if they realised it was their own son they were doing this to. He wasn’t that cruel.

They had been ‘studying’ him non-stop but, after so much time had past that he could see bags beginning to appear under their eyes, they finally left the lab. They made sure to lock any and all escape routes on their way out. They left without even bothering to patch up the gaping cut in his chest that was still pulsing out ectoplasm.

As soon as the door clicked shut behind him he finally breathed in. With the sudden movement he felt a harsh shock of pain and closed his eyes tightly. He shivered as he forced himself back into his human form and proper, red blood began to drip out of him and down his bare chest instead of ectoplasm.

The cuffs around his limbs loosened with the sudden loss of ghostly power, and after a few moments clicked open completely. He was lucky that his parents had only designed the cuffs to lock when around a ghost and not a human.

It was a slow, painful process of sitting up and moving away from the cuffs. It felt as if he was being torn apart from the inside with every small movement. As soon as he was sitting up he looked down and finally noticed how much blood he was loosing. He panicked. In his panic he hanged back into his ghost form where he knew he wouldn’t be able to actually die from lack of blood. He held his hands to his chest, over his wound, to at least try to settle the bleeding. It didn’t work and the ectoplasm fell between his fingers.

He went to look around for something that would actually work in stopping the wound from bleeding but he didn’t have the time. He could hear the sound of footsteps coming ever so closer to the door to the lab. He didn’t have the time or strength to fly through the walls of the lab to escape. Instead, he used all he had to turn himself invisible.

The door clicked open seconds later and in walked his parents, new tools in hand. Danny held his breath even though he knew the motion was unneeded. He watched as their eyes swept over the bench he had been strapped to and saw the anger, annoyance and disbelief fill their faces.

His mother Maddie instantly took charge of the situation, barking an order at Jack, his father, to search for the ghost boy. She told her husband that she would search the lab in case he was still there and would check to see just how he had escaped in his condition. As she walked to the bench with narrowed eyes, Danny pushed himself forwards to the door his father was also headed for. He was careful not to touch his dad as the door opened and he made his way through it. He knew if he accidentally brushed over his dad the man would notice the sudden cold that was a ghost moving through him. He didn’t think that getting attacked in his state would be a very good plan.

He was careful not to pass any of the camera’s equipped with ghost sensing technology that were spread through the house. He was glad at that moment that his parents had took the time to explain where the cameras were and how to get around them in case of emergencies. And this situation, in Danny’s opinion, was definitely an emergency.

Clutching his wounds he made his way around the blind spot of the camera’s sensors. Despite how careful he was trying to be, he didn’t notice the fact that ectoplasm was still bleeding through his fingers and slowly dripping onto the floor. He was in too much pain to pay attention to anything aside from one specific thing. He didn’t see his mother open the door to the lab either, the woman having waited until she knew her husband was gone to follow the track of ectoplasm he had left on the ground.

Danny made his way to his bedroom, where he knew he had the bandages and stitches to help him. It took a while with him having to stop multiple times because of how much pain he was in, but eventually he ended up in front of the door to his bedroom.

As soon as he was there he turned visible once more, then turned intangible. He looked around to make sure no one was watching and phased through the door, which he had locked earlier that day– if it was even still the same day, which he couldn’t be certain of.

Just as his whole body made it through the door, he let go of his wound and ectoplasm gushed our onto the floor. He stumbled towards the dressing room table and misstep he unconsciously changed back into his human form. Red dripped onto the green already on the floor. He grabbed the handle of the draw and pulled it open hurriedly.

Then, quicker than he had ever moved before, he dug through his pile of clothes until he reached the bottom where he kept his emergency first aid kit. He pulled it out instantly, getting to work in patching himself up as soon as he had the box open and had the wash cloth, antiseptic and stitches in hand. He had to put a spare cloth into his mouth to stop himself from screaming loudly and alerting his parents (or sister) of his presence.

Meanwhile his mother stopped at the door of her sons room. She was unsure as to why the ghost boy had chosen to go this way – especially considering Danny’s room was the furthest from either the back or the front door of the house – but she didn’t spend long thinking about it. Instead, she put her hand to the handle of her sons door and twisted. It didn’t open and she let out a huff of exasperation. Without hesitation she unzipped the top of her jumpsuit and grasped the chain around her neck that held her keys. She pressed the lock she had placed on it and the key fell into her hand. She put it into the keyhole and turned.

The door unlocked silently and Danny had no chance to turn back to ghost form, nor did he have time to escape from his window which he always kept open just in case. Maddie entered the room, ghost-hunting gun in hand, and instantly saw the large splatters of ectoplasm that was spread across the floor. She was ready to fire, ready to take down the ghost and bring it back to study, but then she spotted the change in colour. And she saw what, or rather, who, the trail led to.

He turned and she saw the blood trailing down his chest. She swallowed back bile as she spotted the stitches he held in his hand and the needle, which he had connected to those stitches, that was halfway to being fully into his skin. She didn’t want to look. So she didn’t. Instead, she looked up into his where but, somehow, that was just as bad. He looked terrified of her. His eyes were shining with tears of either pain or sadness, or maybe both, she didn’t know. Nor was she sure if she even wanted to.

Danny, her son, stood in front of her with the exact same cuts in his skin that she had her husband had done to the ghost boy. She may not see this sometimes, but she most definitely was not an idiot. Her eyes widened as she quickly put the pieces together.

The gun dropped out of her hands and they shook as she used them to peel of the mask over her head. She could no longer hold back the vomit and ran for the nearest trash bin, which was in the corner of the room. As soon as she was certain it was all out of her system she wiped the sides of her mouth and turned back to Danny, who, instead of trying to leave so he would not have to talk to her, remained frozen by his dresser. The only part of him that did move was his hands which he used to try and do the rest of his stitches in between looking at her and looking back down at the wound. He was so unsure of where he should be looking that he missed where he was trying to direct the needle.

She stepped forwards and Danny stepped back. She couldn’t stop the deep frown from forming on her face.

“Danny?” She questioned, “please… let me help you.” She moved closer and was relatively close to being directly in front of him when he finally decided to speak to her. The amount of fear that she heard in his voice was enough to bring even more tears to her eyes.

Danny didn’t want to make her upset. Even though he knew his mother wasn’t stupid, he tried to downplay the situation with a small laugh. “I’m fine mom, I… don’t need any help.” He knew that obviously wasn’t going to convince her so he paused, scrunching up his eyebrows, “it was just an… accident at school. I hid his bad it was, I’m sorry.” His shoulders fell as he finished speaking. He knew how pathetic his excuse was, but he didn’t have the time to think up a better one.

Maddie shook her head. Her son was lying to her but, she supposed as she looked at the cut that still had yet to fully be stitched up, she deserved it.

Then his mother continued walking until she was standing right in front of him. She kneeled down in front of him and carefully removed the stitches from his hands. She didn’t talk as she peeled one of his hands away from trying to cover up the wound, nor did she speak as she began to thread the stitches through his skin with the grace of a professional. She didn’t speak as she took the bandages from the first aid kit in the top of Danny’s dresser, even though she was curious about when he had gotten it because she had never seen it before. She fixed him up without allowing for her motherly tendencies to take over, but as soon as she was done she took him into her arms softly.

Danny didn’t hug back and she didn’t know why – she did – that killed her so much inside.

Danny didn’t know what to do. His mother’s arms were around him and usually he would either hug back or push away feeling embarrassed. But all he could do, all he even thought of doing, was choose sit there and not move.

“I’m so sorry.” His mother finally whispered into his ear, “I never would have– if I had known–“ she choked on her words and Danny felt wetness fall onto his face. It was not from his own eyes. He lifted his head up and looked into Maddie’s eyes, easily spotting the tears falling from them.

He didn’t know how to reply. She was apologising to him as if she knew, but she didn’t, she couldn’t have figured it out so quickly after being so oblivious to it for so long. He was about to speak and tell her of how much he was sorry that he hadn’t told her. Of how he didn’t blame her for thinking he was evil— even he believed that sometimes.

But then she continued.

“I shouldn’t have left the ghost boy alone.” She sobbed out, and Danny’s eyes widened. “I should have known that ghosts would have more powers than we know! Because of my ignorance, he hurt you! My son… This is why I don’t trust those vile creatures.” There was anger now and Danny slowly began to piece together the puzzle of what was happening.

She didn’t know. Danny was unsure about whether he should be happy or sad about that.

He breathed in deeply. “It’s not your fault.” He lied, “I don’t blame you, mom.”

A hand caressed his hair. His mother continued to hold him close. “You should.” She said and for a moment Danny thought she was going to tell him why. He thought that maybe she was going to tell him about all the horrible things she and her husband had done to the ghosts. Done to him.

Instead of that though, she lied right to his face. “We were going to help him. He came to us bleeding, and we went to get our supplies. When we came back he was gone. I didn’t know he had come here just so he could do this.”

Danny closed his eyes. Anger burned in his lungs and he was just about ready to shout at his mother that he knew the truth. That she should stop lying. That the ghost boy hadn’t done this to him, she and his dad had. But then the anger began to fizzle out and fade away.

He swallowed. “I believe you.” He told her, and the smile she gave him was worth the lie.

“Thank you, honey.” She pressed her lips to his forehead and finally let go of him. “Try not to let that ghost boy near you again. Keep you stun gun that I made for you close by. I don’t want to you hurt on my watch, or anyone’s watch, ever again.” Then she stood back up.

As soon as she was standing, she stepped back to give him space. She told him to come back to her when he needed more help with the stitches. He agreed. She kissed his forehead again, told him that she had to find his father, and left once more.

Danny fell to the ground as soon as she was gone. His tears finally flowed down his face as he came to a conclusion.

He could never tell them. They would always hate ghosts, and they would always hate the ghost boy even if they did know he was their son. They would either try and study him again or feel too much guilt and pretend he didn’t exist. Or maybe they would throw him out. None of the options were promising, and none held anything good.

Danny didn’t move from where he sat for a long time. He was too exhausted. When he did finally get back up, he just went to bed.

After then he pushed the situation to the back of his mind and told no one of what happened, even when they asked about how he got such a large scar. When they asked, he lied.

From then on he made sure to be very careful when in ghost form near his parents. He didn’t want a repeat. But if they did catch him one day, when he thought they were finally warming up to him again, he would be sure not to detransform in the house or anywhere close to where they were. He would know that it was better to just keep his injuries out of everyone else’s lives, and keep up this giant charade until he finally wore himself out.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! I really hope you’ll like this, and came across as intended. I hope that you can tell me what you thought, and maybe give me some constructive criticism.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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